Making UKIP into the First Digital Party of the Modern Age

We need to transform UKIP into a diffuse network in keeping with the digital age

The advent of YouTube free speech activists can give us undreamt of levels of social engagement

To say we are on a roll is an understatement. Written off many times only to rise from the dead like Dracula to prey on the body of the political class, this time it really did look like we were on our uppers. On just 1% in the opinion polls, with no money and series of deeply embarrassing leadership disasters, the influential blogger Guido Fawkes declared that UKIP looked ‘done’. Now the same site has UKIP rising up once more, and the UKIP sympathizing journalist James Delingpole declares UKIP are on the verge of a spectacular comeback.

The Brexit betrayal has obviously given the party the obvious short-term boost in the polls, but there were signs of life even before then, with Gerard Batten steadying the ship and turning UKIP’s focus onto the public’s huge concern with the rise of Islam as well as a principled stand on protecting free speech.

Few would argue that given the present circumstances the leadership should context switch back to Brexit in order to both reap the maximum benefit and also undermine the position of Theresa ‘the Appeaser’ May, but in the meantime, we should be quietly restructuring the party for a much deeper and long-lasting transformation.

Make UKIP the first 21st century party of the digital age

None of our existing political parties, including UKIP, have really cracked politics in the age of social media. Politics, just like everything else, has been transformed in recent years from siloed institutions to the amorphous, diffuse networks of the internet: the action now is in the rapidly created, ever-shifting grassroots movements driven by social media rather than in rigid party structures.

That said, political parties exist for a reason: only a party has the salaried professionals, organizational structure, procedures for candidate vetting, and expertise to formulate detailed policy. They are also custodians of important intellectual traditions.

How then to get the best of both worlds? Astonishingly, UKIP, thought to be the party of old white men, is now better positioned than any other to make the transformation, having recently attracted powerful YouTube free speech activists Paul Joseph Watson, Carl Benjamin, Mark Meechan and Milo Yiannopoulos to the party. These figures have followers in their millions, who can influence political culture enormously and vastly increase UKIP’s impact.

Forget About Mass Membership: Think Social Engagement

The essential thing to understand is the concept of the ‘long tail’ and its centrality in modern digital culture: millions may watch a Paul Joseph Watson video promoting UKIP on YouTube, but only 1 in a hundred, at most, will ever join the party. Young people these days are used to dipping in and out of identities and niche interests, but political parties as they stand do not cater for their culture.

Instead of making it all or nothing, we should be able to cater for all levels of engagement. We can do this by the democratization of party policy.

The Concept Of The UKIP PolicyNet

Under Gerard Batten the party has already started to go down the democratization of policy: the latest issue of Independence magazine carried with it a voting flyer where UKIP members could propose policy areas for the party to concentrate on. We should now take the next logical step and digitize this initiative and open it up to outsiders.

One way we could do this is to create an open, online forum – UKIP PolicyNet – where party members and supporters can engage with the various policy groups. It would be free to all UKIP members but by paid subscription for supporters or special interest and advocacy groups, with each contributory post deducting from a flexible subscription fee. The fee would help keep posts serious as well as creating a revenue stream for the party that would help cover any administration or hosting costs. It would cater for all levels of engagement, from highly committed members to non-members interested in niche policy areas.

Various UKIP policy groups would be expected to interact with the forums by presenting some of the ideas at group meetings and giving feedback where appropriate. However, they would in no way expect to be bound by them. Obviously, some areas of policy are much more amenable than others to this concept. Public discussion on a highly specialized area such as defence procurement would be much less useful than, say, one on social welfare policy where public contributors will have direct and relevant experience of how the system works and, therefore, genuinely valuable observations to feed into policy. The rapid feedback loop would both help refine policy and retain an ongoing level of engagement with its supporters.

I initially put this idea to various figures within UKIP leadership a few years ago, but it was, then perhaps an idea before its time. Now, however, with the advent of Watson, Benjamin, Meechan et al. we have an unrivalled opportunity to bring a critical mass of digital engagement to our party on a previously undreamt of scale. Perhaps we could ask these luminaries to run a forum on free speech policy for starters?

Anyone interested in taking forward this idea is very welcome to get in touch with me directly.

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16 Comments

Tony Woodcock
on July 20, 2018 at 11:36 pm

At last. A beginning of anew vision for UKIP. An excellent idea that needs seriously considering for development.

Richard Lee
on July 20, 2018 at 6:51 pm

Whilst I agree that the internet is a great tool, it can also be a hinderance, ask President Trump. You have to be careful that you know who you are in contact with and what their interest is, good or bad. I do think that, even with Ukip Daily you are dealing with the converted. When I worked on the Leave stall, most people that visited the stand already wanted to leave the EU, at any price. It was only door to door canvassing that brought forth discussions regarding the Union. The use of modern media is useful but not the be all and end all of a political campaign. The branch system should get people out canvassing, finding out what people want for their futures, and before an election campaign.
As an aside I rejoined UKIP on the first of April this year and have had no newspapers or any ballot paper.

Bryan Tomlinson
on July 20, 2018 at 8:08 pm

Trump says the internet won him the US Presidency.

Everything else is fake news.

Rob McWhirter
on July 21, 2018 at 2:41 pm

Let me know your membership number and email, via Viv, and I can look intomit for you…

COLIN HUSSEY
on July 22, 2018 at 8:05 pm

I think you will find that you wont be able to cast any internal vote until you have been a member for 6 months.

Rob McWhirter
on July 20, 2018 at 3:49 pm

Electronic voting (I live in hope) will be a good start…

Jake Bennett
on July 20, 2018 at 3:41 pm

Thank you very much Andrew for this thought provoking article. I want UKIP to both fight tooth and nail to achieve a clean Brexit and be a a successful post-Brexit political party. We cannot do that by immitating the well funded Lib/Lab/Con party structures. Andrew’s blue sky thinking is refreshing and innovative and well worth giving a full hearing, sooner rather than later, with both the NEC and our Party leader.
If the principle is acceptable then let Andrew roll his ideas out at the Conference in Birmingham. Time is of the essence if we are to make progress.

Kevin Baverstock
on July 20, 2018 at 12:09 pm

A UKIP non-members paywall is not a good idea. The Guardian is the only serious newspaper site without one and always asks for voluntary contributions but I’m not sure how well that works either.

Like all blogs and sites, (dynamic) content, as they say, is king. Contributors will never pay to have their work or ideas published.

That said, this is a good article and is going forward, not backwards. I applaud it. It deserves attention.

The ‘PolicyNet’ idea is sound, but needs our lazy MEPs and spokesmen to interact and listen, which the majority do not.

Unless and until there is two-way traffic, and that includes Gerrard, then UKIP will not grow fast enough to get out of stagnancy and so will not be large enough to count should there be a snap election. Sorry folks, but that’s the truth of it.

In the meantime, they can always come onto this site if Viv approves it. Let’s start with Peter Whittle and David Kurten ? A Q and A about the London crime wave perhaps?

And what UKIP policy is.

Debbie
on July 20, 2018 at 4:40 pm

There are ways of urging our MEPs and spokesman to interact and listen Kevin. The MEPs all have an army of assistants including PAs, secretaries and PROs. All we have to do is contact their Public Relations people regularly; if they’re worth their salt they’ll have a ‘news nose’ and be able to spot a news story for their principal a mile off. If we keep on at them, they’ll eventually contact us when they have something.

The spokesmen are in post to speak to members of the party and members of the public and if they don’t have anything to say to us, they shouldn’t be spokesmen.

Kevin Baverstock
on July 20, 2018 at 8:37 pm

You are right. Its an acid test… I’ve written numerous times to our MEP’s and NEVER had a reply. Not even once.

JackT
on July 20, 2018 at 11:06 am

An interesting idea which I would broadly support. However, “The fee would help keep posts serious…”? Possibly but we must remember that the opposition are well funded. We have to be extremely careful about “contributions” by the enemy which suggests a moderation policy that could be very onerous as popularity builds.

We also need to manage our own publicity material in the way that serious published documents would be controlled in the real world, i.e. properly checked, approved and recorded with version control where change is likely. It is not technically difficult to set such processes up but it does require a substantial effort and quite possibly some cultural change.

In particular we cannot have various groups/branches doing their own thing which does not accord with current UKIP priorities and our core values (whatever they are – they don’t seem to be published anywhere).

As for keeping members informed I do get GB’s emails which are welcome but have yet to receive an Independence magazine or anything other than a membership card by post. Clearly improvement is needed and an online forum should be a great help.

Rob McWhirter
on July 20, 2018 at 3:47 pm

When did you join? Yiur Indepndence News with NEC ballot paper should have arrived by now! Have yiu perhaps movd recently?

Bryan Tomlinson
on July 20, 2018 at 10:12 am

If a lower membership fee is introduced, not only will we attract new members, there will also be no need for political subscriptions.

My first thought was free speech costs how much ???

Groups that wish to use UKIP forums while not wishing to join UKIP can be Associates, Contributors , Partners or another name someone smarter can think of.

Associates? can be charged the same fee as members to increase revenue to HQ and branches.

I’m all for free speech but a private UKIP forum should not allow Associates to criticise UKIP otherwise rentamob will turn up and ruin it.

File that under Freedom To Not Have To Listen.

Bryan Tomlinson
on July 20, 2018 at 1:59 pm

I forgot to say well done and thank you for your positive input.

It’s what the country needs. Ideas to encourage 17.4 million Britons to ignore the LibLabCon and engage with UKIP.

Alec Yates
on July 20, 2018 at 9:32 am

Excellent article Andrew and you are quite right. In this digital age we must engage with young people especially who do not read newspapers or magazines but get all their information online.

Norman
on July 20, 2018 at 2:10 pm

Totally agree, but from certain sections ‘on-line’ not necessarily , political blogs, or the ‘alternative news media’ but often from ‘influencers ‘ on a blog or site which may have or often does not have on the surface any particular political bias. Many popular programmes on T.V are masters of this subliminal suggestion.

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